Convenient hotel in Miami area

My husband and I are flying into FLL on Thursday before our Saturday cruise departure. We will rent a car, and drive to Key Largo for a scuba class on Friday. After the class (it will be late afternoon/early evening), we think we should drive to Miami, return the car and stay at a hotel where we can get a taxi or shuttle to Port in the morning.

We are looking for a convenient location to drop the car off, and a hotel that is easy to get to from the drop off location by shuttle or taxi, and is easy to get to the Port from on Saturday morning via a taxi or shuttle. We won't have any time to explore Miami, so convenient and safe location is the priority.

Alternatively we could hang onto the car until Saturday morning (we will probably have to pay for a 2 day rental either way) but I am leaning toward the idea of not having a lot to do in the morning before we go to Port.

Any advice on hotels and our car drop off plan? We have never cruised out of Miami.

Thanks!

I would look at staying in the Keys Friday night and dropping the car off Sat morning - National, Alamo and Thrifty offer free shuttles to POM from their MIA airport location.

You could drop the car at MIA where every agency will have an office and stay at an airport area hotel with free airport shuttle service - there are several nice hotels in the Blue Lagoon area near MIA with shopping and dining options nearby; a cab to POM from these will run about $30 on the meter. There are also a couple of budget options that offer both airport and port shuttles - La Quinta East and Springhill Suites Medical Center.

You could return your car to a downtown location - Hertz, Avis, Budget, etc. and stay downtown. Look at the Intercontinental, Doubletree, Marriott, Hampton Inn Mary Brickell, Hyatt, etc. Taxi to POM from any of these will run about $12+tip

Ii's nice to have lots of options - have a good cruise! :)

I agree with John however I'd stay in Key Largo Thursday and Friday night.